Thrilled to be working on a Scottish Chamber Orchestra song cycle with some awesome musicians: composer Suzanne Parry, singer Hannah Rarity, Aisling O’Dea (violin), Su-A Lee (cello) and William Stafford (clarinet). The song cycle is part of the Scottish Borders Heritage Festival and we did research at three Borders houses – Aikwood Tower, Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford House and Bowhill – to develop our ideas. The songs lyrics are inspired by women connected to the houses, and told from each character viewpoint:

The Reiver Wife (Aikwood) – the woman who served her husband a ‘dish of spurs’ to send him out reiving

The Palimpsest (Bowhill) – a debutante sings Burns while revealing her secret thoughts of love.

Suzanne and I also worked with pupils from four primary schools in the Selkirk area to devise three children’s songs.

The lyrics were collaged from their writing, and the melodies composed using instruments and group collaboration during workshops at Aikwood, Abbotsford and Bowhill. The songs are:

By the Ettrick Water(Aikwood) – the story of a reiver family staying safe

I Am House (Abbotsford) – what would the house say if it could speak?

Caroline’s Song(Bowhill) – the voice of the young girl in the famous Bowhill portrait ‘Winter’, by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The song cycle premiere is at Bowhill on 6th September 2017, and the children’s premiere is at Victoria Hall, Selkirk, on 7th September 2017. The commission was developed in partnership between the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Live Borders and Scottish Borders Council – huge thanks and gratitude for involving a Borders writer in this wonderful project!

I’m delighted to have a feature in the brilliant writing magazine Mslexiaon copywriting for creative writers! It’s the first time I’ve had work in Mslexia, and the article was inspired by an article in a recent issue on the financial difficulties faced by writers. Since I live in a rural area and work freelance, I need to do different things to make a living, and have been surprised by how few creative writers also write for business. Combining commercial and personal creative work is perfectly normal among film-makers, so why not writers? So this article was written in a spirit of empowering women writers to know our worth and help us survive.

The new edition of my book, How to Launch a Freelance Copywriting Business, is being edited to bring it bang up to date with changes in this fast-moving field, and will be out again shortly. Drop me a line if you’d like to be updated: info@juleshorne.com, and I’ll send you a PDF on how to get started with business applications of your creative writing skills.

It’s been an exciting end to the year, getting my freelance copywriting book for creative writers out there! I wrote it for creative writers and journalists who want to start a copywriting business, but don’t know how to make the transition to commercial writing.

This kind of business book for creative writers wasn’t around when I was starting out. And although there are now plenty of books about copywriting, SEO and writing for the web, there’s nothing specifically for people who can already write well – who may even have an MA in creative writing, or a journalism background – but need business skills.

Think about it: most people who study creative writing or go into journalism are arts graduates. Very few come from a business background. So where on earth do you start?

17 years of copywriting experience

That’s the dilemma I faced 17 years ago, when starting my copywriting business, Texthouse. Even though I did some training and read everything I could lay hands on, it was still a baptism by fire. But it could’ve been very straightforward, if only I’d had someone to guide me through.

This book is for my younger self, and for any creative writers who aren’t making a decent living from their skills, and want to learn how.

It’s practical and honest, and I hope you enjoy it. Drop a line to info@method-writing.com if you want to go on my mailing list for templates and future updates.

Paines Plough, the UK’s new writing theatre, has just launched its new app of online plays, Come To Where I’m From – and my mini-play about my home town of Hawick is among them!

The Paines Plough app is a round-Britain tour of 100 playlets about place, written and performed by the playwrights themselves. Yes, we’re an intrepid bunch! And surprisingly showy-offy! Mine was recorded at Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, at the fantastic Paines Plough Roundhouse auditorium.

It was lovely to meet (though briefly) fellow Scottish playwrights Mikey Burnett, Kieran Hurley and Rob Drummond. It was equally excellent to have the chance to pour out long-simmered thoughts about the Borders, tectonic plates, tweed and midges, with props.

There was a lot to get across in a short, short time. The Borderlands are an epic geological, political and historical fault-line whose importance is obscured in these peaceful times. Perhaps we should be glad? But the rituals of war are re-enacted here every year, in every town, even centuries on. Perhaps we have something to impart?

Thanks, Paines Plough, for the chance to be involved. There’s lots of discussion about ‘placemaking’ nowadays, but those of us who actually live it in the wild edge places don’t often get heard among the urban folks who run the schemes, award the grants, host the discussions. When your national arts body advises you not to badge an event as ‘Borders’, your buried warlike nature stirs. Watch this space. Move your radar.

Phew! I’ve just pressed the button on Wrapped Town, my second collection of short stories, and the one I’ve been really burning to publish. Here’s the background:

Ten years ago, the collection went out to several US publishers through literary agent Faye Bender, and got some fantastic reviews. However, short story collections weren’t being taken on at the time, and they wanted to see a novel, so the stories went into a box.

But they didn’t go away. Some had won awards and been adapted for radio. When I rediscovered them a few months back, they were still fresh and clamouring to be unleashed. So I decided to learn about publishing and put them out myself.

And here they are! The whole publishing process has been incredibly empowering, and I’m indebted to Joanna Penn for her inspiration (I highly recommended her Creative Penn courses, and the free resources on her Creative Penn site) and also to Victor Marcos for his beautiful cover design. The production quality is a delight, and learning the ropes has opened up so many exciting possibilities.

If you’re a creative writing MA or student or journalist, you might be looking into indie publishing or setting up a small press imprint for yourself. It’s not that hard, and I’m pulling together some resources so you can get there quicker. In the meantime, drop me an email if you want to find out more.

A few years back, I was publishing short stories, and had some ‘great writing but no dice’ reviews from US publishers. At that time, they weren’t interested in short fiction, and wanted to see a novel. I didn’t have a novel. It’s not the kind of thing you can just produce from your sleeve. So my short stories lurked in a drawer. I like to think they were maturing, like fine wine.

As it turned out, also in the drawer lurked an experimental collection of flash fictions. Kind of prose-poem, mini-drama pieces. I was writing one a day as a challenge, to get back on track with writing after a time of upheaval.

These nanonovels were jostling for attention and seemed to want to be published first. I didn’t argue – there were too many of them. Fast-forward through an indie publishing course with Joanna Penn, a layout template course with Joel Friedlander, a crash (and burn) course in ISBNs, cover design and book production, and here they are. Texthouse is now a publisher.

If you like your fiction short, snappy, funny, sad, odd and thought-provoking, you might enjoy Nanonovels. If you ever have writers’ block (or lock) and want to kick your own butt, trying writing a nanonovel yourself. I learned a huge amount about story shape, the power of randomness, and the mystery of creativity. There’s no better way to surprise yourself!